


Five parties Emily Gilmore attended without Richard on her arm

by Kyra



Category: Gilmore Girls
Genre: 5 Things, F/M, Gen, POV Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-09-03
Updated: 2006-09-03
Packaged: 2017-10-29 11:45:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/319560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kyra/pseuds/Kyra





	Five parties Emily Gilmore attended without Richard on her arm

**1.**

Her own coming out into society; she didn't know Richard then, of course, and the son of some of her parents' friends, Keith Emerson, served as her escort for the evening. Her dress was perfectly tailored and her hair set in stiff waves and she knew she looked perfect. If Keith snuck off later to kiss Chrissy Daniels on the lawn, what did that matter to her? She was a lady of society now. (Just after they were married she asked Richard if he'd ever been an escort at a debutante ball and was perversely satisfied when he said he didn't think he had.)

 

 **2.**

Lorelai's fifteenth birthday party. Richard was away on business and Emily had nearly called off the entire event after a particularly nasty fight with Lorelai, who seemed to get more brazen in her rebellion every day, but the caterer already had the deposit, and there was image to think about. At the party the canapes were sub-par and Elizabeth McIverson managed a particularly barbed comment about Emily's drapes and Lorelai disappeared entirely to be discovered later in the cellar with Christopher Hayden, a bottle of wine, and four boys Emily didn't know. It was the last birthday party she ever threw her daughter: a year later she was too pregnant to be seen in public, and a year after that she had taken the baby and run away and Emily had no idea where or how she spent her birthday.

 

 **3.**

The DAR luncheon for the Francis Scott Key Society, just after Richard moved out to the pool house; the event went off marvelously, three people complimented her on the crab puffs, and when two of the women mingling on the deck asked why the curtains to the pool house were drawn, she told them they were having renovations done. Richard didn't come home until the caterers were breaking down the tables and he didn't look at her on his way into the pool house.

 

 **4.**

Rory's bachelorette party was for women only, obviously. "Even us old married types," Lorelai said loudly after her first two drinks, patting Emily's hand and frowning dramatically at her own ring. It was a little too raucous for Emily's taste but Rory looked lovely, as always, and people -- Sookie, Lane, that brusque Gellar girl -- all took turns coming over to make small talk with her. It made Emily feel old, for once, that her granddaughter could be getting married. Emily had changed not only her diapers but her mother's diapers, and in three days she'd be walking down the aisle in a gown Emily had made sure was sure to be the talk of the society pages. Richard was asleep when she got home but he woke up when she got into bed. "How was it?" he asked sleepily, and Emily shifted her pillow, fluffing it until it was the right shape. "Fine," she said, and then listened to his breathing even out, thinking of when they were that young, when she first knew for sure this was the man she wanted to spend her life with, when everything was in front of them.

 **5.**

Richard's wake. The candlesticks weren't polished enough and she kept having to shake hands with people whose names she barely remembered, but it was overall a tasteful affair. Her best black dress still fit, and every time she turned around Lorelai or Rory was at her elbow. She kept catching herself scanning the room, though, for someone taller than the rest of the crowd. A reason she could slip away to make sure he agreed with her assessment of the whole event, to just take a moment--. No one was there, though, of course, and wouldn't be. It was all so stupid.


End file.
